The Lonely Hearts Club

Chapter 36: A Sense of Comfort (Hades)

Bree is sitting on my balcony, knees pulled to her chest.

She's sits outside for a long time.

She hugs herself, and every so often, her shoulders tremble like she's crying.

Her long hair lifts in the breeze, and I force myself to look away.

She needs some time to regather herself, collect her thoughts, or some shit.

I'm so pissed off that the front desk and Nicks didn't listen to her. That whole fiasco literally happened at the worst possible time.

She was already unstable, she needed to get to my room without any complications, but that didn't happen.

I wish I could have walked in there with her, but I couldn't.

Joey called, something he hardly does.

If he does decide he wants to talk to you, you have to answer immediately and you have to be alone.

Those are his rules, and you never break Joey's rules.

I thought there was an emergency and that I'd have to help him with something depraved and sick, but no.

He just called me to talk about the fight tomorrow.

He said the first match officially starts at 9pm, but there will be a whole bunch of other shit starting at 6pm for the fans, but I don't have to be there for that.

He said he wants me there at 7pm and told me he called because he was worried I might mix the times up.

I would not have mixed the times up.

I sort out a temporary situation for Acorn and wonder about Bree.

She can have my bed and I'll sleep on the floor or something.

I know she doesn't like sleeping in front of other people, but at least she can lay on something comfortable.

She's still outside when the sun begins to set and the sky is partially pink behind the smog.

She's still outside when dusk slips into night and moths flutter around the automatic lights.

I don't disturb her.

I clean up my place, shower, eat, and get a bag packed for tomorrow and she's still out there.

Nicks knocks on my door and I briefly talk to him before telling him to go away.

At 10pm, she finally comes back inside.

Her eyes are sad and her lips are curved downwards.

"Hey," I say. "You want something to eat?"

She's silent as she looks around my living room. Her eyes fixate on my TV and DVD player.

"Can I watch a movie?" She asks.

"Yeah, what do you want to watch?"

I think Bree hates all of the movies I have. She doesn't come out and say that, but I study her reaction to her looking at the titles and she doesn't look necessarily overjoyed at any of them.

"This is fine." She wrinkles her nose and looks at the back of some violent action movie.

"Nah, let's get something good."

"From where?" She looks at me suspiciously.

"At the movie store, come on, let's go." I hold out my hand for her and she hesitates.

"I have another way to get outside that doesn't involve the front foyer."

She takes my hand.

The hallway is freezing and quiet as we walk down it. Every so often the elevator will ding on one of the lower floors, but not up here.